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Food safety isn’t the most glamorous part of cooking. No, the glamour is reserved for the stuff that looks good on social media: glistening cuts of perfectly cooked meat, gooey cheese on pizzas, and cakes just out of the oven. But food safety is not only of equal, but greater importance than the finished product, because proper food safety could not only guarantee a delicious meal, but it could save your life.
Ultimately, much of food safety boils down to common sense and keeping your work surface clean. However, the nuts and the bolts can be a bit trickier, such as attaining internal temperatures in meat, and the proper methods and materials for cleaning, cutting, and cooling.
Bookmark these ten vital food safety tips for reference, because they’ll help keep your kitchen healthier and happier for life.
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Make sure meat reaches the right temperature – When it comes to doneness in meat, visual cues are imperfect and subject to interpretation. To be sure your meat has cooked sufficiently for safe consumption, use a meat thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the meat, rather than on the outside or on an edge, which will register a higher temperature. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, here are some common internal temperatures for food safety:
- Chicken: 165 degrees
- Beef and lamb: 145 degrees F plus 3 minutes rest (medium well)
- Pork 145 degrees F plus 3 minutes rest (medium well)
- Ground beef and pork: 160 degrees
When home cooking, to ensure that you don’t overcook the meat, remove it from heat 5 degrees shy of the suggested temperature. It will actually crest in temperature after removing from heat, so it will likely attain those extra five degrees after you remove from heat.
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Make dishes with raw eggs safe for consumption – It’s true: consuming raw egg has been linked with salmonella. But this doesn’t mean that dishes such as French Silk pie, eggnog, or French buttercream, all of which call for raw egg, are off limits. All you have to do to ensure safety is pasteurize your eggs to kill potential bacteria.
Pasteurizing is a method of killing bacteria by raising the temperature and then cooling it again. You can pasteurize your own eggs by putting them in a saucepan filled with water, and then raising the temperature of the water to 140 degrees F for 2-3 minutes. This will kill the bacteria, but it won’t scramble your eggs. Once cooled, use the eggs in the recipe called for without a worry.
Store meat safely in the refrigerator – While many people consider the temperature of their cooked meat, they don’t consider proper storage of the meat before it’s cooked. Most people know that meat should be stored in refrigeration to keep bacteria from developing. But location matters: store meat in the lowest part of the fridge. This reduces the possibility of drippings falling on items below the meat, which could cause bacteria-related issues.
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Keep your cutting board clean – Cutting board cleanliness is not only good housekeeping, but it’s important to your health. Even if they look clean, cutting boards can hold on to harmful bacteria.
For the best guarantee of safety, have two cutting boards: one for raw meats, poultry, and seafood, and another for everything else. Personally, I have a plastic cutting board for meats, and a wooden cutting board for everything else. This makes it easier to keep track of each kind.
To keep your cutting board clean, follow these steps: after cutting raw meat, clean your cutting board with hot, soapy water, and then disinfect using a sanitizing solution. Rinse again with water, and you’re good to go. This website has many helpful tips on cleaning cutting boards.
Note: Nonporous cutting boards can generally be put in a dishwasher, unless otherwise specified. They should still be disinfected, though.
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Wash your hands…and your towels – People consider washing and sanitizing their counter space and cutting boards, but then they will dry both of them (and wipe up just about anything on the counter) with bacteria-laden kitchen towels. Kitchen towels are less famous as a source of harmful bacteria, but perhaps this makes them even more dangerous, because nobody even thinks about them. Take a moment to consider them, and to wash them–frequently. If you’ve used a kitchen towel to wipe any mess following meat or dairy preparation, wash it before using it again.
The law of the thaw – Listen up: do not be tempted to thaw frozen foods on the counter. According to the USDA, “even though the center of the package may still be frozen as it thaws on the counter, the outer layer of the food could be in the “Danger Zone,” between 40 and 140 °F — temperatures where bacteria multiply rapidly.”
But don’t panic–it is possible to thaw safely. There are four key methods (source):
- Fridge method: transfer frozen foods to the refrigerator. This is a safe method of ensuring gradual warming of your foodstuff so that it can be cooked with ease. The only draw is that it requires a bit of forethought: some foods can take up to a full day to thaw, and once thawed, meats in particular have a short life span: 3 to 5 days at most.
- Cold water method: it’s faster than the fridge method, but it requires some babysitting. Place your food in an airtight container or plastic bag, and submerge in cold water. To keep the water from getting too warm, change the water every 30 minutes or so. Once thawed, cook the food immediately for best results.
- Microwave method: Well, this method might be fast, but I suggest it as a “break in case of emergency” method only, because the quality of the finished product is typically inferior in texture to the above two methods. If you do thaw a food in the microwave, you must cook immediately, because portions may have begun to cook already, and by stopping the process, you could be in the aforementioned “danger zone”.
- Frozen method: It is possible to cook foods directly from the freezer. Keep in mind that your results might not be quite as good as the first two methods, and that cooking will take longer–up to double the time.
Ice baths are your friend – No, we’re not talking about a Nordic tradition. Ice baths are a way of ensuring food safety with ice water. As previously mentioned, the “danger zone” for food, according to the USDA, is from 140° F to 40° F. When foods are in this zone, they’re at most danger for spread of bacteria and toxins that cause foodborne illness. But how do you get a food from the danger zone to safety, fast?
To cool foods evenly and efficiently, employ an ice bath. It’s easy: fill a very large bowl (think punch bowl) or your sink with ice and cold water. Then place the container with your food in the ice bath. Make sure that the container is level with the ice, so that the entirety is being cooled. If it’s, say, a dish of potato salad, lift and stir every 10 minutes to make sure that every surface is being cooled. Once your food has reached 40 degrees F, it’s safe to put in the fridge or freezer for longer-term storage.
Photo via Flickr member cakespy
Keep cake frostings cool – If your cake is frosted with cream cheese icing, you’ve simply got to keep it cool to be food-safe. But don’t worry–this doesn’t mean you have to serve your cake with a rock-like substance posing as frosting. It’s OK to take the cupcakes out 30 minutes in advance of eating, or a full cake up to an hour, so that they can come to cool room temperature before enjoying. This will ensure both safety and a soft, yielding, delicious texture.
Buttercream is not quite as sensitive as cream cheese frosting, but when in doubt, refrigerate. Even unused buttercream or cream cheese frosting can be stored before being used to ice a cake: up to a week in the refrigerator, or a month in the freezer.
Marinate safely – If you’re making a marinade, make sure you’re using the proper protocol. First, make sure to use either a glass or plastic container – not metal, as it can interact with the marinade. Plastic freezer bags are fine, but you will have to discard them after using. Once you’ve mixed the meat with marinade, refrigerate it: you need to keep the mixture below 40 degrees F, so letting it sit on the kitchen counter will not do at all. When you cook, be sure that none of the marinade liquid gets cross contaminated with other liquids: discard any excess.
Photo via Flickr member kathycsus
Avoid cross contamination – You’ve probably heard the term “cross-contamination”. But what does it mean? Basically, that harmful bacteria can jump from food to food, cutting board to counter, if foods are not properly handled.
The general rule is “be smart, keep foods apart” – and this step can be followed from the moment of purchase to food preparation. This is also the culmination of many of the tips described above!
To avoid cross contamination:
- When buying food, keep meats and dairy apart from fresh produce and anything else that might be dripped upon.
- When preparing food, be sure to wash your hands, cutting board, utensils, work surfaces, and kitchen towels frequently.
- Marinate and store foods in airtight containers.
- When serving, use separate utensils for serving different dishes.
- When storing leftovers, store each different food in a different container.
Ultimately, food safety is in your hands. It might not be the most fun part of cooking, but it’s important for your safety and the ones around you. By taking a little time to follow the rules of food safety, you can avoid unnecessary food borne illness and enjoy what you cook even more.
Do you practice proper food safety?